Holding hand-drawn signs reading “Immigrants get the job done” and “Kidnapping is wrong,” a crowd gathered Thursday night on East Third Street in Bethlehem to protest the arrest one day earlier of 17 construction workers at a city apartment complex by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The СŷƵ Emergency Response Network — a group of residents, community organizers and faith leaders who offer assistance to community members affected by immigration enforcement actions — organized the rally and urged protesters to join their efforts and to counter ICE raids.
The workers arrested Wednesday were repairing damage from a May 2 fire that displaced the 135 residents and first-floor businesses of Five 10 Flats on the 500 block of East Third Street.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations Allentown and Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia conducted a “worksite enforcement operation” at the apartment building, according to a statement issued Wednesday. Seventeen employees were “encountered, interviewed and arrested for immigration violations and subsequently detained pending removal proceedings,” per the statement.
In addition to holding signs, participants in the Thursday night rally decorated the sidewalk with chalk reading “Immigrants make America great.”
“I think it’s really ironic that these folks were preparing homes that were damaged by a fire and, in the midst of that, they were ripped away from their own community, from their own homes, from their own families,” Jon Stratton, dean of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, said Thursday night. “It’s completely tragic. It’s cruel, it’s immoral. It’s not right. And, as a faith leader, as a follower of Jesus, I believe that Jesus was a worker. Jesus and his family knew what it meant to be immigrants, and this is where Christ calls us to be.”
Anger toward ICE sparked calls for an additional protest outside Bethlehem City Hall. Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons said the СŷƵ Emergency Response Network did not organize that protest but members planned to attend with the intention of deescalating the crowd if necessary and of joining forces to recruit residents to future trainings for the emergency response network.
The protesters left Third Street around 6:40 p.m. and headed to City Hall. As they walked, they chanted “Immigrants are welcome here”; “Up, up with liberation; down, down with deportation”; and “Say it once, say it twice: we will not put up with ICE.”
protest heads toward City Hall
— Elizabeth DeOrnellas (@liz_deornellas)
After Emergency Response Network protesters joined the demonstration outside Bethlehem City Hall, organizers estimated about 400-500 people filled Payrow Plaza. There, Allentown City Council Member Ce-Ce Gerlach urged the crowd to hold all levels of government accountable, calling out Allentown’s efforts to protect immigrants.
They thanked Gov. Josh Shapiro for doing “more than nothing,” reading his proclamation of June as “Immigrant Heritage Month.” The crowd began to disperse a little after 7:30 p.m.
At the earlier protest in south Bethlehem, Sandy Milien, a South Side resident for six years, said her own immigrant background — she was born in the Dominican Republic and is half Haitian — makes the ICE raid hit close to home.
“I think this community wants to just live in peace,” Milien said.
She described the emergency response network as a group of “young, old and retired” people from a spectrum of backgrounds who want make sure every human is valued.
The Trump administration has called on federal immigration authorities to increase arrests and deportations for immigration violations. ICE should make at least 3,000 arrests a day, according to statements from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, reported by the Associated Press. ICE made an average of 656 arrests a day Jan. 20 to May 19.
Another protest, organized by Indivisible СŷƵ — Bethlehem as part of the national No Kings protests, is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Bethlehem Rose Garden before marching to Main Street. Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds is scheduled to speak. Organizers said they expect 1,000 people at that protest, which would take on additional significance after the ICE raids in the city.
